TMTRAINER effect

The TMTRAINER effect is the common name for a series of glitchy effects associated with the move -- and most Super Glitch moves occupying Hexadecimal Identifiers between AC to C3 (or those with index numbers between 172 and 195.)

Effects in battle

Most commonly, side effects associated with the use of these glitch moves will only occur in battle. There are many strings of dialogue that can occur, but the most common, will result in the enemy Pokémon acquiring a large amount of HP and becoming frozen, but it will simultaneously become burned. On the same turn the opponent's name would be changed so that it contains the string 'TMTRAINER' as well as some glitch dialogue. Since the game will often give the opponent a larger amount of HP than its maximum, the opponent Pokémon may faint due to the large amount of damage from its burn.

The common TMTRAINER effect usually follows this pattern:

1. The opponent will acquire the burn status.
2. The music will fade, however it is notable that sometimes certain sound effects will play.
3. Presuming that all in-battle processes were previously running as they should have been; when a move or item is used, the following text will be displayed: "Enemy [glitch dialogue, which often takes up a large amount of space] TMTRAINER (Species) is frozen solid!"
4. Then similarly, the text will be displayed: "Enemy [glitch dialogue occupying a large amount of space] TMTRAINER (Species) is hurt by the burn!"
5. The Enemy Pokémon's health bar will wrap across the screen several times and slowly deplete until eventually when after several minutes the Enemy Pokémon may faint.

If the player was battling a trainer, the opponent will send out the Pokémon that was in battle before the glitch activated. Upon the battle finishing, the game will freeze. Also, if a wild Pokémon was being battled, the game will freeze as soon as the battle ends.

Explanation

The TMTRAINER effect starts when certain glitch moves are used which correspond to information about irrelevant data within the game. The most typical example is the move --, which corresponds with data concerning how the Cancel button functions; it usually has no effect, but when the player changes the PP of the move it will also change the effect of the glitch move and other irrelevant information regarding how the battle interface should function for example, or information outside of battle which could cause the game to freeze. The glitch moves with index numbers between 172 and 195 appear to correspond with information about the same set of variables which correspond with information about the opponent's name, status and other factors, so if the player reduces the amount of PP of that move by one essentially this data will be 'shuffled' slightly.

Trivia

• 23 glitch moves have been documented as those which can cause the TMTRAINER effect, as well as --. However -- is more likely to give different in-battle effects when used.
• Other variations of effects can be encountered; however, these are extremely rare and seemingly random. Possible effects include Pokémon names becoming a section of the start menu, status conditions, extreme health and even permanent stat changes.

This article is part of Project GlitchDex, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on glitches in the Pokémon games.